Isla del Sol
Trip Start
Sep 13, 2004
1
26
82
Trip End
May 06, 2005
Copacabana,
Bolivia
Friday, November 19, 2004
The walk was lovely. I can't think of any places in Peru where I'd have considered doing it on my own, but I asked around here and heard no bad stories. Along the way I chatted with some local women and none of them told me how dangerous and full of robbers the road was
01 The Isla del Sol is in sight!
. Lo and behold, I'm still in one piece with all my belongings still belonging. Looks like the same isn't true in all of Bolivia though. One woman asked me where I was from, and when I said England she asked which country that was in. My explanation obviously didn't convince since when I said I'd just come from Puno she asked if I was Peruvian. She can't have much respect for their standard of Castellaņo! Once again, it's funny to observe how some people's lives are so focussed on one small town, and maybe she'd never gone much further than Copacabana, whilst other people in the same country live so differently.The walk took me across a plain and then along the coast past villages full of farmers, livestock, fishermen, boats, reeds etc. I've gradually been becoming addicted to Oreos, and today they proved themselves indispensable. I was approaching a dog which started barking, and I don't like dogs. It was wagging its tail, but that was likely just a ruse. I put my trouserlegs back on again, as if the thin cotton would be much help against its vicious fangs, and then chucked it an Oreo. It ran over, grabbed it like a flash and skulked off where it could eat it in peace, leaving me alone.
In Sicuani I took a quick ride out on a totora boat, traditionally constructed using reeds and polystyrene.
I had been planning to head towards the north of the island for a hostal, but a combination of setting off late and the walk taking longer than expected meant that I was a bit short of time before sunset and stayed in Yumani near the south. This turned out to be lucky as I continued walking northwards the next day but the track petered out and I spent some time wandering through terraces hoping no angry farmers came out to tell me to get orf their land
02 Me crossing to the Island
. I eventually found the well-trodden track up to the Inca ruins in the north, where there was also the sacred rock where the Inca creation legend began (not sure how this fits with the Peruvian festival of the emergence of Manqo Qapaq and Mama Oqllo in Puno - it's a long way to row fom Bolivia).I'd been intending to walk back to the south end for the boat back to Copacabana, but on finding that one left from Cha'llapampa at 1pm, via the Isla de La Luna, I was overcome with laziness and effected a change of plan.
I had dinner in Copacabana with Janosch, one of the Huaraz/Trujillo/Puno Germans, temporarily travelling on his own, and whom I just happened to bump into of course.
